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Most schools provide vision screening programs to identify children who have problems with eyesight. Although these provide a great opportunity to notice common vision problems, many vision issues go undetected in school exams. A comprehensive eye exam from an optometrist is needed to accurately diagnose a range of common pediatric vision issues.

Treatment of Pediatric Vision Issues

Although glasses may help with these pediatric vision issues, vision therapy is the most common course of treatment. Vision therapy actually retrains the eyes to work together, focus appropriately, and track objects. This may include in-office therapy with special instruments as well as personalized at-home exercises to practice vision skills. Successful vision therapy changes the eyes' functioning to facilitate clear vision.

Parents are often aware of the need to screen children for nearsightedness or farsightedness, but fewer know about other pediatric vision problems. Ocular motor dysfunction is a condition that often manifests in childhood, although adults may also have this disorder. Because ocular motor dysfunction

Simply put, accommodative dysfunction means that the eyes have difficulty focusing properly. Studies suggest that between 2 and 17% of children may suffer from accommodative dysfunction. The nature of this disorder means that it sometimes goes unnoticed in standard vision screenings conducted at school.

Convergence insufficiency is a relatively common eye condition that is typically diagnosed in childhood. A study of two large optometry clinics found that 17.6% of children who received vision exams had convergence insufficiency. As this disorder may cause difficulty focusing on written pages, some children